The Bible, The Word Of God by Ronald Fabri - Introduction
My Nonno was a great man, and a great pastor. I remember staying up late with him and Nonna and talking all night about the bible. I was particularly interested in end times then.
Recently, I’ve been writing a few of my own thoughts on some of the scriptures (here, and here). After reading them, Nonna sent me through a document written by Nonno, which helps explain them a little better than I can.
I’m going to publish this document on my blog as a series of studies, so that you and I can read through them together.
His first, below, is an introduction to the Bible. I hope you all find this as interesting and important as I do.
The Bible - The Word Of God
By Ronald Fabri
Introduction
The Bible, the English form of the Greek word BIBLIA, meaning “books”, is the name which in the fifth century was given to the entire collection of sacred books, known as “The Library of Divine Revelation.” It is the greatest book that has ever been written. The composition of the Bible is a miracle in itself. It is a library of 66 books; 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. This does not include the books of the Apocrypha, which are only accepted by the Roman Catholics, the Anglicans and the Eastern Orthodox.
The Bible has been composed by many different writers, in three different languages and under different circumstances.
The writers represent a cross section of humanity: educated and uneducated, Hebrews, Jews and Gentiles. They are writers of almost every social rank: kings, fishermen, public officials, farmers, teachers and physicians. Most of them are unknown to each other and are writing throughout various periods of time which span approximately 1500 years. The Bible makes comment on such topics as religion, history, law, science, poetry, drama, biography and prophecy. For so many writers, of such varied backgrounds, to cover such a wide variety of subjects over such a long period of time in absolute harmony appears impossible.
So, how then do we account for the Bible? We must keep in mind that the Bible is not purely a book of philosophy, although it is philosophical. We should not go to the Bible for a scientific study; however there is no discrepancy between certain facts of science and the Bible.
Nor is the Bible simply a book of history, even though it is found to be accurate when recording history. The Bible was given to man from God, revealing Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the only Saviour and giver of eternal life.
The Bible alone truly answers the greatest questions asked by man:
Where have I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? How can I know the truth? It is the Bible which reveals the truth about God, explains the origin of man, directs the only way to salvation and eternal life and clears up the age-old problem of sin and suffering.
The most significant writings in the entire Bible are those which tell of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work of redemption for mankind. The person and works of Jesus Christ are promised, prophesied and pictured in the types and symbols of the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ is revealed, in all of His truth and beauty, in the Gospels and the full meaning of His life, His death and His resurrection is explained in the epistles. His glorious second coming to this earth in the future is unmistakably foretold in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, including the book of Revelation.
The great purpose of the written Word of God, the Bible, is to reveal the LIVING WORD OF GOD who is THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
As mentioned before, the Bible is divided into the Old Testament, containing thirty-nine books, and the New Testament which contains twenty-seven books. In the New Testament, the Old Testament is referred to as “the Scriptures” and they are regarded as being given by God by divine inspiration. From time to time God raised up men to commit to writing the revelation which He gave them. The “Scriptures,” or collection of sacred writings, was enlarged as God saw necessary. Thus, it was God’s purpose to perpetuate His revealed will.
Before we go any further, we would like to emphasise what God Himself, by divine revelation, inspired the writers to proclaim:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”. (Heb. 13:8)
“And like a mantle You will roll them up; Like a garment they will also be changed.
But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end”. (Heb. 1:12)
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Hi, I’m Luke. Welcome to my blog. Here I write about life, the universe and everything. Be sure to check out other thing’s I’m involved with by visiting my home page: http://lukecarbis.com.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
I was wondering… do you know where it says in the bible that it is the divinely inspired word of God?
November 26th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Actually - I’ve never considered that myself before - good thinking.
I don’t know, but I’ll research it, and post about it.
Does anyone want to beat me to it?
November 26th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
It’d be great to hear more of what your Nonna wrote. Having never met him before, I think it helps me to know a bit of him, when you talk about him? And he seems very wise- we could all learn a lot.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:35 am
[...] What’s all this? [...]
December 7th, 2007 at 11:15 am
2 Timothy 3:16 - 17 tells about how the scriptures are given by inspiration of God
January 14th, 2008 at 9:52 am
[...] Bible - The Word Of GodBy Ronald FabriThe Bible is the Inspired Word of GodWhat’s this?The Bible itself claims that it is a book fully inspired by God. The Bible dictionary defines the [...]
February 5th, 2008 at 10:58 am
[...] What’s this? [...]
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 am
Though the Bible was written by some 40 human authors, whose names are all known to us, these human authors constantly remind us that they are not writing what they themselves have thought or felt, but they are writing what God told them to write.
To give an example: the authors of the four gospels all the time emphasize the fact that they are recording the words of Jesus Christ. And when you read these words of Jesus Christ you see that He constantly emphasized the fact that He was telling the people what His Father ordered Him to tell them.